Street vendors with megaphones raise hackles of Hyderabad dwellers

Hyderabad: Unlike Telangana, the police in Bengaluru is more pro-active than any other public department when it comes to reading the people's pulse while serving their duties and taking swift action on street vendors who are using megaphones or loudspeakers in residential areas.

According to a report, the Commissioner Bengaluru Police Kamal Pant – while answering the grievances of the public during Janasamparka programme being held regularly by the commissioner of police in Bengaluru, has announced that strict action will be taken against vendors using megaphones or loudspeakers who create nuisance in the residential areas.

Here in Hyderabad city and its peripheral areas, the situation is different. The street vendors – abrasive towards ailing old age and young people with heart issues and unmindful of reposing employees working in night shifts, are treading into residential areas with honking loudspeakers to sell their goods on the cost of people's health and tranquillity. "Not just the loudspeakers, the terrible rasping sound of the auto trolleys was too unbearable. These vendors, under the guise of poor peddlers, keep entering into the colony from dawn to dusk and consequently disturbing peaceful atmosphere in the residential colony. They are least attentive to the suffering of the residents and some are even cantankerous.

We can't take a rest even in our houses," rued Syed Shoukat Ali, a senior citizen residing at Shastripuram Colony. M A H Asif, a software engineer said, "The menace of loudspeakers-based-selling has frustratingly grown in recent times without any administrative sanction for it. We work in different shifts in various industries, agencies and departments. Hence, our work-sleep timings are quite unique subject to the nature of our job. Many of us return from our duties early in the morning, be it from the airport or hospitals, and find it annoyingly difficult to catch up with some sleep even in the personal restive corners of our home."

"Not a single hour is passing without hearing the horrible sound of these street vendors. When the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is allowing a platform to hold weekly markets in almost every area, we have now decided to take the issue more seriously and approach the law enforcing agencies to get the issue addressed properly," bemoaned Abdul Rehman, a resident of Kings Colony, Shivrampally.